se ours is a fight for that basic bargain that built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known. the promise that hard work will pay off, that responsibilities will be rewarded, that everyone gets a fair shot, everybody's doing their fair share, everybody's playing by the same rules from wall street to main street to washington, d.c. that basic bargain is why i ran for president and that's why i'm running again. that's what this election's about. that is what this election is about. i mentioned last night, i got my

start in service, because i worked with folks who had been laid off from steel plants that had closed when jobs started getting shipped overseas, and over the last ten years, we've seen that happen more and more. too many families struggling with costs that keep rising, even when paychecks don't. so people are having to use their credit cards or home equity loans just to try to make the mortgage or pay tuition or put gas in the car or food on the table. and that debt is why this house of cards collapsed in the great recession. millions of innocent americans losing their jobs and their homes, folks losing their life savings, and we are fighting to recover from that. and it's a long, tough journey. but our friends at the republican convention, they've talked a lot about what they

thought was wrong with america. they didn't tell you what was right. they didn't tell you what they would do to make it right. they want your vote but they don't want to show you their plan, and that's because they know their plan won't sell. that's because all they've got to offer is the same prescriptions that they've had for the last 30 years. tax cuts -- >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports" president obama today in portsmouth, new hampshire right now. the morning after. will the weak august jobs report wipe out any bump that the president might have gotten from his convention? republicans are pouncing today. paul ryan on cnbc and mitt romney just now in iowa. >> i think that the message from last night was that the president's plan is four more years of the four last years, and i don't think the american people want four more years of the four last years. >> this is not what president obama promised.

i would argue this is the result of failed leadership in washington, bad fiscal policy coming from the administration. >> you didn't elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. you elected me to tell you the truth. and the truth is it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades. >> last night, the president pleaded for patience. he also turned mitt romney's policies into punch lines. >> all they have to offer is the same prescriptions they've had for the last 30 years. have a surplus? try a tax cut. deficit too high? try another. feel a cold coming on? take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations and call us in the morning. >> but the moment that brought the crowd to tears was the entrance of gabbi giffords, bravely, painfully, heroically

crossing the stage and leading the pledge of allegiance in a loud voice. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> there wasn't a dry eye. good day, i'm andrea mitchell back in washington from the democratic convention. two candidates stepping off a big convention platform to take their message to swing state voters today. president obama, you just saw in new hampshire, trying to ride any momentum that he might get from his big speech, and from all of the speeches that led up to his, while team romney is capitalizing on today's weak jobs numbers. >> we had this very tepid report. for every net one job created, nearly four people left the work

force. so this is not what a recovery looks like. >> that of course, paul ryan on cnbc. joining me, mark halperin in charlotte, and with me here at the table, "washington post" columnist, ruth marcus. welcome both. first to you, mark. the afterglow of the convention and then this jobs report showing clearly that people are discouraged, they are no longer even trying to get jobs, and we are now getting close to the final jobs numbers before people go into the voting booth. >> well, the president has survived, his popularity intact and his approval rating decent enough to have a good chance to win with unemployment numbers like these. there's good news in the number that the overall unemployment rate dropped i think from an objective point of view, this is more bad news than good news, because the main thing that needs to be done is massive numbers of jobs need to be created and this report does not reflect that. at the same time, i think the democrats had a pretty good convention and i wouldn't be surprised, i'm not predicting it

but i wouldn't be surprised if the president gets more of a bump out of charlotte because of other business they got done here, than governor romney got out of his convention despite the unemployment figures. >> the democrats did seem, ruth, to have more of a theme, because you could argue that he didn't build it, while inaccurate, is not a theme. it's a bumper sticker, a bullet point, talking point. but the democrats seem to really choreograph their convention and there were no empty chairs. more on that in a moment. also, they had some really big speeches. >> they hadome terrific speeches. i think i would have given the republican convention, i would call it a gentleman's c but i give the democratic convention more like a b-plus. they are some kerfuffle i think is the technical term over the platform but there were really good speeches. on the jobs report, this is not what you would want to serve up the morning after -- look, the

morning after you promise a million new manufacturing jobs imbedded in this jobs report, manufacturing down 15,000 jobs. that's not what you want. but i think mark is right, in terms of where the public is and what they're expecting, what's their understanding, what's the public understanding of 96,000 jobs versus 150,000 jobs. they understand it's over 8%, that's not where they want it to be but it's in the range they've kind of sadly learned to tolerate. i think the strongest point that mitt romney has is the way he phrased it this morning, four more years of the last four years. >> mark, in the speech, the president had a big challenge to try to lower expectations, explain disappointment, say i'll tell you the facts, i'll tell you the truth, it's going to take longer than a couple of years, four years, to get things turned around but joe biden making the point that we are recovering, and making it very forcefully. how would you rate the

president's speech, because it did seem to be, as i said last night, more prose than poetry. it seemed to have the feel of a state of the union speech, with some soaring rhetoric but not the grand sort of poetic reach that he's had in past years. >> i thought, again, it wasn't a bad speech. i don't think it hurt the president. but it was probably the fourth or fifth best speech of the convention and you think of barack obama as not just a presidential nominee but as a great orator, you would have assumed he would be higher than that. i didn't think it was very cohesive. the most surprise to me was it lacked specifics. we didn't learn anything new, even someone paying casual attention would know all the things the president talked about, he would do in a second term and i don't think he gave people much of a sense of if you elect me, here's how i'll work with republicans and others in washington to get things done. that's what i thought was going to be the take-away they attempted to drill in. they didn't really do that at

all. they focused on saying barack obama's a great guy, mitt romney's not a great guy and mitt romney's policies are bad. >> when you talk about the lack of specifics, he still had more specifics than mitt romney did, but no specifics as to how he would reach the goals of more teachers, more infrastructure. he didn't explain the money behind it, but what he just referred to today in portsmouth, i want to play a little bit of this, the person who was specific was bill clinton. this is the president just now in portsmouth. >> president clinton made the case in the way only he can. somebody e-mailed me after his speech and said you need to appoint him secretary of explaining stuff. >> does that say it all? ruth, mark, you have both covered, we have all covered bill clinton. his speech was such a melding of

the specific and the detailed, wonkish, long, but they were hanging on every word, at least inside the hall. i can't say how it played at home. and at the same time, he had the life and the flesh and blood of a really great convention speech. >> well, he has a fantastic capacity, exactly what the president said, at explaining stuff. i thought he was very, very, very effective in rebutting a lot of the republican arguments against the president. he raided medicare, he's a big government socialist type, this and that. but what he couldn't do and what i was looking for the president to do was to say and this is where i'm going to take the country in the next four years and these are going to be my priorities. i think you made exactly the right point. a goal is not a policy. you can promise to create jobs or have so many college graduates but the fact of the matter is, you need to say how

we are going to get there, how we are going to get there in a way that's affordable and while -- as you know, it matters from the baseline, right? so mitt romney's speech was pretty much entirely devoid of substance, compared to mitt romney's speech. this speech had a lot of substance. compared to what the president promised in terms of telling us hard truths, less. >> mark, the president has now just reacted to the jobs report. let me show you. >> after losing around 800,000 jobs a month when i took office, business once again added jobs for the 30th month in a row. a total of more than 4.6 million jobs. but that's not good enough. we know it's not good enough. we need to create more jobs faster. >> so that is not a great bumper sticker. it's not good enough. you have to make the argument, he has to make the argument that the recovery is happening,

people have to feel good about it, and at the same time, the romney campaign, mark, is dropping a huge ad buy out there, 15 states and interestingly, not michigan, wisconsin or pennsylvania. what do you glean from that? >> well, the wisconsin thing is very surprising. they say they will play there. they say in addition, they will eventually play in michigan and pennsylvania. given how much money they have, i'm surprised because the symbolism of not including wisconsin is pretty stark and can have a deleterious effect on their ability to continue the momentum they got there after congressman ryan was picked. you know, if you are going to vote for the president, you got to believe one or two things. you got to either believe that a continuation of the policies he's currently pursuing will lead to the economy finally turning around, jump-starting it and producing jobs, or that he's going to change course and work with republicans in some way where the alchemy of that will produce new jobs. i don't think he's made a compelling case on either of those points. he was much more and has been much more in his rhetoric

towards the former, towards saying i'm just going to continue doing what i'm doing, that will fly in the face of plausibility if republicans keep the house and win back control of the senate. >> stand by, everybody. thank you all very much, because here we've got mitt romney starting to speak in iowa. >> -- moved on to the private sector, was enjoying his career, teaching and guiding a great institution of higher learning. he says you know, iowa needs the realind of leadership that only he could bring. he came back and ran for office as a great governor, has put iowa, as he just described, on the top charts in terms of the best places to do business with jobs being created. thank you, governor. and thank you to orange city for doing such a great job in electing people who believe in conservative principles, who

love the constitution and will stand for the principles that america was based upon. thank you. now, i have to tell you, i know there's a lot of bad news out there, but i'm looking beyond the bad news. i'm looking over the hill and seeing what's going to happen just down the road a bit. what's going to happen is america's about to come roaring back. i'm absolutely convinced -- [ applause ] look, this is the greatest nation in the history of the earth. the principles upon which this country was founded, those principles are continuing to guide and inspire the people of america, and people around the world, and if we restore those principles, you're going to see our economy come roaring back, and with a strong economy, we can maintain the strongest military in the world. the world depends on a strong america. i was in poland some weeks ago and met with lech walesa.

i came in his meeting area there and he said mr. romney, you must be tired from coming across the ocean. he said why don't you sit down and i'll talk. i sat down and he began to speak and what he said for about 15 minutes was boiled down to this. he said where's america's leadership. we need america's leadership. america must lead. there's no question but the principles of freedom and personal responsibility and dignity that have always formed the basis of america, those principles need to be spoken loud and clear and demonstrated on the world stage, and i will do it again. now, yesterday, yesterday you had the chance if you wanted to to watch the president of the united states address the people of america in his acceptance speech, and i read that this morning. you haven't perhaps got a chance to do that, but if you did,

perhaps like me, you found it extraordinarily disappointing. surprisingly disappointing, because his speech four years ago, he laid out a whole series of lofty goals and unfortunately, he was unable to meet them. as a matter of fact, i can think of very few of the promises he made four years ago that he's kept. he said he would raise incomes for people. in fact, they've gone down by $5,000 a family. he said he would create more new businesses, people who wanted to start a business would be encouraged to do so but in fact, we're a 30-year low in new business startups. he was going to get people back to work. you remember with his stimulus plan, the stimulus said that if we let him borrow $787 billion, he would hold unemployment below 8%. it's been 43 straight months above 8%. there are today 23 million americans that are out of work or stopped looking for work or are underemployed.

it's a national tragedy. he also said he would cut the deficit in half. he doubled it. one promise he kept, though. he said if his energy policies got put in place, the cost of energy would skyrocket and that's happened. this is time for a new president with a different vision for america. >> mitt romney in iowa today. we just saw president obama in new hampshire. we'll have more on the convention over the jobs report, the economic reality, and reaction to the speech. stay with us. we're sitting on a bunch of shale gas. there's natural gas under my town. it's a game changer. ♪ it means cleaner, cheaper american-made energy. but we've got to be careful how we get it. design the wells to be safe. thousands of jobs. use the most advanced technology to protect our water.

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in his speech last night, the president himself tried to lower expectations about judging the achievements of the last four years. >> times have changed and so have i. i'm no longer just a candidate. i'm the president. >> did the speech make the grade? joining me now, the man behind some of the most storied political speeches in history, former speech writer, bob schrum. great to see you. what's your evaluation of this convention, especially compared to the tampa convention? >> well, this convention was full of life. the tampa convention seemed like a business meeting. i think this was almost a master work in narrative, beginning with the kennedy film going through mrs. obama, up through the vice president, senator kerry last night and then the president. i'm a little surprised, i guess not surprised because i kind of think it was inevitable, that some of the reaction to the president's speech. the truth is that i think that speech did exactly what it had

to do. the clip you just showed, by the way, where he sounds that note of humility, i suspect resonated very well with the american people. look, i've done these speeches, especially acceptance speeches, and you test stuff before you go out there and do it. and you test during the time the speech is given. i suspect those tests look pretty good and -- very good and there's going to be a real bounce here. at one point when he said made in america, he wanted to promote products made in america, there were 52,000 tweets in one minute. i think that's a leading indicator of the bounce we're going to see. >> one of the moments of humility, an expression of humility, was this, where he brought up one of those great quotes from abraham lincoln. >> while i'm very proud of what we've achieved together, i'm far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what lincoln meant when he said i have been driven to my knees many times by

the overwhelming conviction that i had no place else to go. >> that really struck me as i was standing out there, i was just off to the side of the podium, you know that kind of position, so i'm looking out at this sea of faces and however that tested, i think it did work with that audience. >> and i think it works with the people. look, it's very powerful. what the president needed to do was go in there and communicate that yes, we've made progress, we've done a lot, but we have a lot more to do. it was joe biden saying the journey of hope isn't over but we're on our way. that message is critical because the president just went out there and said i've done a great job, people would reject him. what they want him to say is we've done a good job, we've made some progress, but we have to do other things to get this country where i want it to go and yeah, i'm a little humbled by this experience, but i'm going to be there fighting for you. the other thing he did was make this election a choice. that clip you showed or the

speech we just saw of romney in iowa, he's relentlessly trying to get this back to a referendum. doesn't want to talk about what he's for, just wants to say if you kind of feel bad about the economy, then give me a try. i think the democrats and the president in that speech last night cemented this as a choice election. who's going to stand up for the middle class, who's going to fight for ordinary people, and who's going to favor the few. >> actually, someone who gets overlooked a lot in conventional wisdom by analysts is joe biden, and joe biden, you could say it was long or over the top, but he really made the point about the middle class and about that choice election. one other speaker whom you know very well is john kerry. i have been hearing certainly from the diplomatic community their take-away from john kerry's speech last night and some of his recent behind the scenes behavior is that he is really moving up at least at this point and it's never over til it's over, in the

sweepstakes if there is a second obama administration, who would be secretary of state. he's played a behind the scenes role as an envoy to some of the most troubled parts of the world without any publicity, he is trusted as a very confidential envoy and there's a lot of competition. susan rice, other players. but john kerry has a lot of supporters now. what is your take-away? >> i think he would be a great choice. i think he would have been a great president, by the way. >> i should say you worked in that campaign. >> yes. right. 60,000 votes in ohio, we would be finishing the second kerry term. i talked to him. he's not focused on that question. he's focused on getting barack obama re-elected. you may remember he endorsed obama very early, right i think the day after the new hampshire primary in 2008. he feels very strongly about the president, feels very strongly not just about what he's done in foreign policy which is what he talked about last night, but what he's done on issues like health care, the whole issue of medicare, where we're going to

go on entitlement reform. he wants this man re-elected and he's going to go out and work as hard as he possibly can for it. whatever happens after that is going to happen. >> while you're speaking, we're looking at live pictures now from portsmouth, new hampshire, the family photo. not just the bidens and president obama, senator shaheen from new hampshire, and that's the kind of tableau they wanted to project the day after. they will go to iowa later today so he's touching base with both of those important states. bob? >> the fact that he's in new hampshire and iowa and romney's in new hampshire and iowa actually testifies to the electoral advantage the president has right now. if you look at the electoral college, he's well in the lead in terms of where this would come out in november. iowa and new hampshire are two states that kind of hang in the balance. if mitt romney can't carry ohio, he's going to have a very hard time getting elected president. if barack obama carries iowa and

new hampshire, it's almost impossible for him not to get re-elected. >> he has a much easier way to go to the electoral victory. thank you, bob. great to see you. >> great to see you. those disappointing job numbers are only adding 96,000 jobs last month, well below expectations, but for the african-american community, at 14%, that unemployment rate is double the rate for whites. congresswoman barbara lee of california joins me from charlotte. thanks very much for joining us the day after the big night, the big convention. congresswoman, this is not the jobs news that any democrat wanted to see. >> well, let me say first, andrea, that the overall unemployment rate is going down, and this administration is creating jobs. we're not losing jobs. as it relates to the african-american community unemployment rate, couple of things let me just say. first of all, it's very painful and i know many members of congress, especially who represent black constituencies,

latino constituencies and i know the president in the white house really understands this unemployment rate in the black community is structural, it's deep and it goes back for many, many decades. we're doing everything we can do to reduce it. secondly, a year ago, it was a 16.7% which is unacceptable. it's still unacceptable. 16.7% was a 28-year high but i just have to tell you, in terms of the african-american employment, the path to opportunity has been through the public sector. when you look at local and state job cuts and the disproportionate impact on the black community, it is just horrific. but the president put forward in his jobs bill provisions to rehire, retrain and to invest in the public sector at state and local levels, because the hemorrhaging is taking place there and that is how we address the african-american community. unfortunately, the republican obstructionist congress will not let us pass that american jobs

act, so this is very, very -- it's very serious but it's very clear what is taking place in terms of those over 500,000 public sector jobs that were lost. also, we have to remember there's still bias in the job market, unfortunately. the public sector has always been where african americans have had a level playing field, at least an opportunity to get a job. those jobs are just about gone. once again, the president has put forth a package to invest in the public sector, which of course are our teachers, educators, firefighters. where african-americans have had those job opportunities. those are gone and the president has been working, we have been working in congress as democrats under the leadership of nancy pelosi, our leader, to really try to get this package passed so that we can stop this hemorrhaging. so we have to do more and we must do more. >> of course, the american people really want more, but what they see is stalemate in washington. that's something that really needs to be addressed.

>> well, stalemate in washington, when you look at the fact that the president has tried for the last three years to work with the republican tea party congress. i have been there, i have seen how he has reached out, tried to negotiate, tried to get them to come on board. just look at the stimulus package which he passed. this was a major, major accomplishment from keeping our country from going into a deep depression, created millions of jobs in infrastructure and construction work, saved many teachers' jobs, first responders, police officers. not one vote for the stimulus package. when you look at all of the efforts that the president has reached out to republicans in the spirit of compromise, they have followed one rule and that was what senator mitch mcconnell said, that their ultimate goal was to make sure that president obama was a one-term president. so they really don't care what the unemployment rate is and they don't care about job creation. i see this each and every day. the president does and we have to re-elect the president and

democrats to congress so that we can move forward with a jobs bill to turn this economy around. he dug us out of this depression that we were in and we have to move forward and that's what the president said so clearly. that's the message of this convention. >> thanks so much for wrapping it up for us, barbara lee, congresswoman. thanks. safe travels coming on home. coming up next, voter discrimination, then and now. my conversation with civil rights pioneer and congressman john lewis at the podium last night. plus, an economic reality check. this is "andrea mitchell reports." ♪ [ acoustic guitar: slow ] [ barks ] ♪ [ upbeat ] [ barks ] beneful playful life is made with energy-packed wholesome grains... and real beef and egg. to help you put more play in your day. my name is adam frucci and i'm the i love new technology,om. so when i heard that american express and twitter were teaming up, i was pretty interested. turns out you just sync your american express card securely

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today's weak jobs report is a blow to democratic hopes for an accelerated recovery. how is this going to affect voter perceptions about whether people are better off than they were four years ago. joining me now, greg ipp, u.s. economics editor for "the economist" and peter hart, half of the nbc news/"wall street journal" polling team, and chairman of hart research

associates and politico's editor in chief, john harris, an all-star cast. greg, first to you. you're the economic expert. tell us about this jobs report and why you have a blog post saying more of the same unfortunately. >> it was a real disappointment relative to what wall street had expected this morning. the number is about just enough to keep, you know, the labor force steady, not enough to get the unemployment rate down by much, not enough to -- so that it keeps going up. it's really the same story of the last two years. an economy that's basically bumping along at around 2.5%, not nearly strong enough for anybody to really feel they're in a recovery. >> weakness in the manufacturing sector which is the heartland which is of course, peter, exactly the battleground states where you track things every day, minute by minute. >> it's going to be tough, but the other side of it is the convention was good for the democrats, and i think the one thing the democrats get out of this is barack obama has gone from being a cocky kind of

president to someone who is much more resolute, much more determined, and i think that becomes terribly important in being able to deal with what we're talking about, which is where the economy is and how do we get there. >> john harris, in politico, glenn thrush's piece went to that exact point, where he said i am not the candidate, i am the president, but also tried to lower expectations, saying it's going to take time, patience. i tell you the truth. that's the tone that he took. >> yes, i was struck by that. it seemed almost a way of saying i'm not playing the monthly expectations game about the economy, i'm trying to have people realize we're in for a long term, perhaps years long, slog for the economy to fundamentally get to a better place, for the foundations of the economy, job training, education and all the rest, as well as fiscal control in washington for those foundations to be in place. i think it's something he wished he had done more of earlier in

his presidency to not necessarily create a climate where people were expecting a vigorous recovery. >> but john, is that going to be good enough to get re-elected when you've got, in peter's research and the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll such a bad, two to one wrong track/right track sentiment, that thermometer showing that people really by overwhelming numbers feel the country's headed in the wrong direction. >> well, they're glad it's not the only weapon in their arsenal, certainly. they feel they can win by making the other -- making the alternative mitt romney and republican agenda simply unacceptable. much of the convention in charlotte was about that task. >> about the jobs report, is this as good as it's going to get or are we going to discover closer to the election that there's some revision next month and that we are all being misled or is this basically now baked in the cake? >> i can't think of a good reason why the numbers would get significantly better between now and the election. there's only two more jobs reports, one of them which

actually comes four days before the election. even if they were really good, it's hard to believe that that's going to make a big difference the way people feel. it's only going to sort of like take quite a bit longer to sort of sink in. the one positive thing we have seen, the stock market did hit a four-year high this week. the stock market looks forward. they're seeing action in europe, seeing action they hope next week from the federal reserve which will eventually begin to turn things around. it's not much, but it is something that perhaps people will feel in their pocketbooks and portfolios and with time, maybe in the job market. >> and the action in europe is significant, at least the central banker in europe took significant action, that was a big piece i think you would say of what the stock market was reacting to. but at the same time, mitt romney and paul ryan, paul ryan specifically on cnbc today, peter, attacked ben bernanke and said that what the fed is doing is putting too much liquidity into the market and that the suggestion has been by mitt romney at least that he would go

after the fed. >> but it comes back to two things. john's right, it comes back to confidence and how people are feeling. i think that essentially, barack obama helped himself through the convention, obviously with clinton, but the more important thing is i play it through an individual, michelle out in wisconsin, who is 38 years old, left out, lost her job at harley davidson and for her, mitt romney hasn't made it. she doesn't know him, she can't feel comfortable with him, she feels uncomfortable with the economy, but more comfortable with obama. if he gets her, he gets wisconsin and probably gets the election. so you bring it back to people. >> one of the things i think has been undervalued here, tell me if i'm wrong, is that joe biden speech validating him to working class and middle americans saying i know this man, i see him every day, i see his reactions, he's fighting for

you. joe biden may not be the greatest orator in terms of the elegance of his speech, but those were very important points. >> oh, boy, were they. what they do is they hit home and they communicate with these average voters, and so joe biden is an exceptionally important part of this ticket because he reaches the people that the president doesn't reach. the president's more intellectual and joe biden is much more tactile, if i can put it that way. >> john harris evaluating the last two weeks. we have been on the road and it's hard to get out of this bubble we've been in but just off the plane now from charlotte and having come through tampa, certainly the democrats had a better choreographed convention. >> there's no question there was more energy to the event and the rhetorical highs were higher on the democratic side. if you look at the effectiveness of the speeches, barack obama who is in the presidency because

of his oratorical skill, did not give the most impressive speech of the convention, it was third or fourth depending on where you put biden. michelle obama gave more of a charge to the party. bill clinton gave probably a more effective, crisper case for another four years than i think barack obama did. fine speech, but not one that really soared. >> thanks to john harris for our politico briefing. thanks to peter hart, our pollster and greg ip. before the president took to the stage last night, legendary civil rights activist, congressman john lewis, gave an impassioned plea to protect voting rights in this year's battle over laws in 16 states. democrats say they are an attempt to suppress minority voting. had a chance to talk to him as well. let's watch the speech first. >> brothers and sisters, do you want to go back? or do you want to keep america moving forward?

>> the congressman then joined me at the podium, just to the side of the podium right after his speech. >> you are the one person who has so much authenticity in congress because you lived through selma. you almost died in selma. and you see a parallel with these voter suppression laws. >> it is unreal to see what the republicans are trying to do all across america. it's not just in the south, but even in pennsylvania, in ohio, in indiana, in so many other places, they're trying to take us back to another period, and too many people have suffered, bled and died for the right to vote. i tried to suggest tonight to vote is precious, almost sacred. they want to take us back to another period and we don't want to go back. >> you are such an important symbol, a living symbol of what happened.

do you think the people have forgotten the struggles for the vote? >> i think we have to remind people over and over again, especially young people. young voters, what it was like for people, for minorities, people stood in those lines, some people were beaten, some people were murdered. i will never forget the three young men in mississippi, they died by trying to encourage other people to become registered, and it would be an affront for what they died for and for all the other people who struggled for us to keep people today from voting. >> do you think there's any connection with the fact we have our first african-american

president that these efforts have now been undertaken? they say, those who support them, say they are aimed at stopping voter fraud, yet the attorney general says that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. >> well, it is a systematic deliberate effort on the part of some forces in our country to win this election, to steal this election before it even takes place. i'm convinced of that. there's no such thing as widespread voter fraud in any part of our country. >> up next, more from the convention floor with advocate eva longoria. this is "andrea mitchell reports." [ female announcer ] the next generation of investing technology

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both have come out with their response to the new jobs report. the first after the conventions. and there are only two more before election day. here's a question. will the jobs report affect your vote? it's our "news nation" gut check. join me live. among the high profile speakers at the democratic convention last night, actress and co-chair of the obama re-election campaign, eva longoria. >> mitt romney would raise taxes on middle class families to cut his own and mine and that's not who we are as a nation. let me tell you why. because the eva longoria who worked at wendy's flipping burgers, she needed a tax break but the eva longoria who works on movie sets does not. >> i spoke to eva longoria after her speech last night, asking her what it meant to her to be on that stage.

>> i'm used to memorizing lines and pretending to be somebody else, so this was a true narrative of my american dream, my american story. just being on a stage like this, being able to address the american people is an honor and a privilege, and i'm still shaking from it. >> you have been so active, you are co-chair of the campaign. what do you need to do to inspire especially latinos and young people to vote, not to sit on the sidelines? >> apathy is a dangerous thing for us. voter apathy, we have been nervous about because i don't think the youth understand the consequences, specifically for the hispanic community and the women's community. every time i travel the country, i tell them these policies are disproportionately affecting us as a hispanic or as a woman so you have got to vote because these policies are going to change your life, it will change your pocketbook, and i think we are getting through. this is the energy here, the

energy across the united states, people are excited. i think it's a myth that people think the energy's not there like 2008. but it is. >> what do you think is at stake, especially for women in this election? >> i mean, think what's so dangerous or what's frustrating is to find the battles we've already won as women. why are we revisiting a lot things that we've already fought for and won? for me, you know, women's health care, equal pay, everything that obama has done for us in advancing our agenda as women, in advancing the country. i would hate to see that dismantled, and that scares me. >> in your home state of texas, you were born and raised in corpus christi, and you talked to the convention about that. in texas they cut off the funding for planned parenthood. she refuse to accept federal dollars. >> which is irresponsible, because planned parenthood provides so many other services that health low income women,

cervical cancer screenings, mammograms, not only contraception and abortion. that's a small part of it. i grew up with planned parenthood, too. my sisters did. i come from a family of women that used planned parenthood, so it's disappointing. it's for me not representative of the texas i knew. >> eva longoria political activist and actress right after her speech at convention. what political story will make headlines in the next 24? that's next on andrea mitchell reports.

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the president said that by this time we'd be at 5.4% unxwmtu unemployment. instead we're at about 8%. you know the difference that makes in how many people would be working in america? 9 million people. >> marcus is back with us now. mitt romney there just reacting in iowa to the weak jobs numbers.

the other thing that's just happened is clint eastwood talked to his local paperback home in carmel, california and he said this really was improv wh. they vet most of the people, and you can't do that with me because i don't know what i'll say. he just thought of the chair as he was going out and said to the station, hey, give me a chair. >> you know, practice kind of helps. improv has its place, but not in a national political convention. >> in terms of improv, the democrats really did have a very well choreographed convention? >> except for that will little platform bump, yes, it was. i think that will help them. >> thank you very much. great to talk with you. >> get some sleep. >> yes, to sleep. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tamron hall has a look at "news nation" next. >> the showdown over the jobs numbers is on between president obama and governor romney.

within the last couple of hours both men came out with their response to the new jobs report. we'll play both of them and from the -- this was the first one since the conventions. there are only two more to go before election day. well, t will the jobs report affect your vote? you can chime in. this is a buzz story. have you heard the iphone 5 is out in a couple of days? get the scoop on the difference between this one and the other four before it. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics...

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his morning starts with arthritis pain. and two pills. afternoon's overhaul starts with more pain. more pills. triple checking hydraulics. the evening brings more pain. so, back to more pills. almost done, when... hang on. stan's doctor recommended aleve. it can keep pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rudy. who switched to aleve. and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels. hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. "news nation" is following big developing news right now in the past half hour. duelling reactions from president obama and mitt romney to today's mixed jobs report for august. >> after losing around 800,000 jobs a month when i took office, business once again added jobs for the 30th month in a